Old man freed after 14yrs in jail without trial

Staff Correspondent, Khulna

A sexagenarian who languished in Bagerhat jail for 14 years on end without trial was released on Monday, three weeks after the High Court granted him bail.

Bagerhat jail authorities set Moslemuddin Biswas, 60, free after the May 5 High Court order reached them. Jail officials, however, refused to comment why he was kept behind bars for so long a time without trial.

Moslem Biswas, son of late Ishaque Biswas of Shakharikati village in Pirojpur's Mathbaria upazila, was arrested by Sharankhola police of Bagerhat on August 11 in 1994 on charges of violence.

The following day he was shown arrested under Special Powers Act in two more cases.

Though he was later acquitted on the violence charges, Biswas was kept behind bars in connection with the two other cases in which he was produced before court only once in 14 years, jail sources said.